The head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, Pope Francis, is dead. He died on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, at the age of 88 at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta.
Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who announced the new from the Casa Santa Marta at 9:45 a.m., said Pope Francis died at 7:35 a.m.
“Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis. At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father,” Cardinal Farrell said.
“His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God,” he said.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, Pope Francis, who was at the helm of the Roman Catholic Church for over a decade, had a long battle with health issues, having undergone surgery in 1957, when he was in his early 20s, to remove a portion of his lung that had been affected by a severe respiratory infection.
As he grew older, the Pope suffered frequent bouts of respiratory illnesses, even cancelling a planned visit to the United Arab Emirates in November 2023 due to influenza and lung inflammation.
He was admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital on Friday, February 14, 2025, after suffering from a bout of bronchitis for several days, but his clinical situation gradually worsened, and his doctors diagnosed bilateral pneumonia on Tuesday, February 18.
He returned to his Vatican residence at the Casa Santa Marta to continue his recovery after 38 days in hospital.
The late Pope Francis was the first pope from the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian Pope Gregory III.
